U.S. President Donald Trump has made no secret of the fact that when environmental science clashes with commercial interests — whether it's coal mining or climate change — he'll ignore the science. A shock discovery off the coast of eastern Canada shows just how dangerous that can be, certainly when it comes to fishing policy. And Canada, to be clear, set out to respect scientific findings in its policy.
A year ago, Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans took a hard look at supplies of Northern cod in Newfoundland and decided to allow more fishing. I had been encouraged at the time that the Canadians seemed to be making policy based on caution and good science. Cod supplies had made an impressive recovery over the past decade, helped by strong fishing restrictions.
But a recent government survey showed that cod numbers dropped by 30 percent in the past year, with losses projected to grow over the next two years. The setback comes after a decision early in 2017 to allow a lot more fishing, although other environmental factors — a drop in the number of capelin, a key cod food source — also played a role.